Skip to main content

California traffic deaths drop for fifth consecutive year

California saw a decline in overall traffic deaths for the fifth year in a row. According to federal government figures, total vehicle fatalities dropped 11.9 per cent, from 3,081 in 2009 to 2,715 in 2010. Since the latest high of 4,333 in 2005, the 2010 figures show a total decline of 37.3 per cent.
April 20, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSCalifornia saw a decline in overall traffic deaths for the fifth year in a row. According to federal government figures, total vehicle fatalities dropped 11.9 per cent, from 3,081 in 2009 to 2,715 in 2010. Since the latest high of 4,333 in 2005, the 2010 figures show a total decline of 37.3 per cent.

The 2010 figures are the lowest for the state since 1944, when one tenth the number of vehicles travelled one sixteenth the number of miles. While the economy has some effect, officials also point to high visibility enforcement, sobriety checkpoints, multiple public awareness campaigns, safer car construction, better road design, and faster emergency medical services as factors.

"Well-managed traffic safety campaigns by law enforcement throughout the state targeting dangerous driver behaviour is a factor in the continued reduction of traffic-related deaths and injuries," said 1855 California Highway Patrol Commissioner Joe Farrow.

Under a shared vision of Toward Zero Deaths – Every 1 Counts, state and local agencies and organisations have been developing and implementing the California Strategic Highway Safety Plan since 2006. OTS, CHP, 923 California Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 831 Federal Highway Administration, county and local governments, as well as individuals and community organisations like 4949 Mothers Against Drunk Driving have been actively pursuing work on over 150 specific actions contained within Plan.

So that 2012 will continue the gains, the Office of Traffic Safety has now announced $76 million from federal funding to support 213 traffic safety grants to state and local agencies for the grant year that begins on 1 October, 2011. The new grants are a combination of time-tested, successful programmes and emerging efforts, some tackling new problems.

Related Content

  • Connecticut Transit uses web feedback to improve user experience
    May 27, 2014
    Connecticut champions open government and open data to help fostertransparency, accountability and citizen engagement – and that includes transportation matters as Andrew Bardin Williams discovers. The last thing anyone wanted was to inconvenience or displace others - least of all people who lived and worked in the neighbourhood. Yet, workers in an office building in downtown New Haven, Conn., were tired of shuffling through hoards of people who kept sitting on the stoop to the building while waiting for th
  • Groups seek electronic collision alert devices on big trucks
    February 20, 2015
    The US Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the Center for Auto Safety and Road Safe America have filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requesting that the agency initiate rulemaking to require forward collision avoidance and mitigation braking (F-CAM) systems on all new large trucks and buses with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or more. F-CAM technology uses radar and sensors to first alert the driver and then t
  • Comprehensive review of distracted driving research released
    April 18, 2012
    The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the US has released the first comprehensive overview summarising distracted driving research for state officials. The report considered research from more than 350 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2011.
  • New York to pilot cordon-based congestion charging
    March 16, 2012
    From 2009, if all goes to plan, New York will run a three-year cordon-based congestion charging pilot - the first in the US. Upon accession, US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters signalled her intention to continue her predecessor Norman Mineta's initiative to specifically target road congestion. And, with initiatives such as the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Urban Partnership Program actively promoting tolling as a part of a compound solution to the problem, the way was opened for the co